IntroductionWell, time for another Mol tournament. The advertised prizes were a Mox Sapphire, Mana Crypt and boosters for T8. This meant that 40 people had to show up, which unfortunately didn’t happen, once 30 were there. So the first prize was reduced to a Timetwister, everyone’s favourite Power 9 card
I was expecting a massive amount of Stax, so I was looking for a deck to play in the weeks beforehand. While randomly testing, it turned out that a copy of Jesse River’s SCG Affinity deck was wandering around in my archive of deck files, and I put it together. Playing lots of permanents and banned cards from other formats has to be good for something, right?
And it was. The week before this tourney, Eindhoven’s monthly T1 tourney meant I had to play a reasonably good deck, but it wasn’t sanctioned, so I decided to run the Affinity deck with a few modifications, nothing big though. The deck ran pretty well there, but there definitely was something missing, like a good finisher. Triskelion is nice and all, but NO-ONE plays blockers in Type 1, so after the tournament I figured I might as well run a few Cranial Platings in the deck to help it speed up and reduce my vulnerability to Rebuild (as in: sac all your critters to Ravager, bounce..SHIT!).
After some more deliberation, I came up with the following decklist:
Plating > Combat Phase in Vintage.dec4 Arcbound Worker
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Metalworker
4 Myr Servitor
3 Myr Retriever
2 Triskelion
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
4 Tangle Wire
4 Skullclamp
3 Cranial Plating
1 Memory Jar
8 SoLoMoxCrypt
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
3 Island
2 Polluted Delta
4 Mishra’s Workshop
2 Ancient Tomb
Sideboard:
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Trinisphere
3 In the Eye of Chaos
3 Serrated Arrows
4 Magus of the Unseen
As can be judged, I expected a lot of Stax, so I deliberately left out Sphere of Resistance from the maindeck, which would only slow me down, instead adding more/faster threats, in the form of Cranial Plating. I know this leaves me vulnerable to combo decks, but I figured few-no players would be playing combo, and I was right. I overestimated the amount of Stax though, as there were a heap of partially or unpowered decks, like fish, Goblins and FCG. But I’d say it’s time to move on with the report
Round 1: Romain from France playing Stax.Hmm….ok. Round 1 and immediately I’m facing Stax. I didn’t know this though, until he came out with Welder, Smokestack on turn one. That’s a pretty good play, but not against my hand. I put like 5 permanents in play on turn 1, sacrifice a Wasteland the next turn, play Plating, equip and smash for 7 on turn 2. YAY
. He doesn’t draw anything usefull and dies 2 turns later to savage beatings.
Sideboard: -1 Servitor, 1 Worker, 4 Tangle Wire, +4 Magus, 2 Arrows
Game 2 sees me having a somewhat slower start, but his was as well. We trade blows for a bit and I Clamp some of my creatures, until I find a Plating. Guess what happens, he takes 7 damage, then 8 and then dies. Stax really isn’t that hard of a matchup, unless they get an insane hand. All your permanents are cheaper and being able to tap equipped equipment is SO like cheating verses Wires.
2-0, 1-0
Round 2: Dennis playing unpowered Vial-FishI don’t know exactly what happened, my notes just show his life total go from 20-18-12-0. He got a sound trashing at the hands of Ravager&Co.
Sideboard: -1 Retriever, Servitor, Emerald and something else, +1 Trinisphere, 3 Arrows.
Game 2 is a tad slower. I can’t find a Plating at the start, but Arrows makes short work of his army of x/1 dudes and Clamp is an excellent card. I can’t attack for damage because he Hurkyll’s Recall’s my board at some point, so I play everything again, find Triskelion and a Plating and smash him from 20 to 0 in 2 turns.
2-0, 2-0
Round 3: Gert playing GoblinsHe wins the die roll and leads with a fairly standard Mountain, Lackey. I go Shop, Ravager, Worker, Mox, Clamp though, then add another Ravager the next turn. I start attacking for a bit, while keeping a Ravager behind, seeing he’s amassing a small army of dudes. Then I draw Triskelion and it’s all over.
Sideboard: -1 Emerald, Servitor, Retriever, +3 Arrows
I don’t even bother boarding in Trinisphere. He goes Taiga, Lackey and I play Lotus, Metalworker and waste his Taiga. That wrecked his hand pretty soundly and it’s all downhill from there on for him. He manages to find a Mountain before he dies, but to no avail. Afterwards he shows me 2 Artifact Mutations he had in his hand…pheww.
2-0, 3-0
Time to draw into Top 8 and relax for a bit. My fourth opponent is playing FCG and we draw and the next round I’m paired vs Rudy (rvs) and we draw as well and it’s T8 time.
Top 8: Andras (from Hungary) playing Oath.I win the die roll and try to play a Metalworker, which is forced pitching Drain. He Duresses me and takes a Tangle wire, probably overlooking the Cranial Plating in my hand. I play a few dorks and a Plating and he goes Orchard, Oath. Turn 2 Oath is usually pretty good, but I almost manage to race him by equipping his own token and attacking for 6. Next turn I attack for 8 and then I die to Akroma and Spirit beatings. Damn.
Sideboard: -1 Worker, Servitor, Emerald, Retriever, something, +4 Chalice, 1 Trinisphere
I get a lot of action after mulliganning my first hand and play something like Ravager, Worker, Clamp I think. He doesn’t have a very good hand but gets an Oath in play, then oaths up a Platinum Angel. Hrmf…I resolve a Memory Jar, bait with Tangle Wire, then play Tinker for Triskelion and kill him and the Angel.
Game 3: he gets a pretty good hand which goes turn 2 Energy Flux. Fortunately, I have a trusty Metalworker which diligently pays upkeep after upkeep, and after I get a second Metalworker and an Academy and lock him under 3Sphere, Tangle Wire with some help of a few Wastelands, he dies a slow dead to a 5/3 Servitor.
Top 4: Ken playing Meandeck Gifts.Hmm..not exactly my favourite matchup, to say the least. We both get off to a slow start, me playing a Skullclamp and seeing it Forced. Fortunately, I have a second one. I start playing creatures and drawing cards and he doesn’t get a lot steam, but he Mystical’s for Tinker. He’s only got 3 permanents and I play a Wire and tap him down, while a few dorks finish him off.
Sideboard: -1 Worker, 2 Servitor, Emerald, +1 Trinisphere, 3 In the Eye of Chaos
I mulligan into a reasonably good hand. He goes Mox, land, Scroll for Ancestral and I draw a Crypt. I play Crypt, Shop, Ravager, Trinisphere, which all resolve. He doesn’t have a second land and passes and I equip with 2 Platings in the next 2 turns and beat him to death: 20-15-4-dead
Finals: Bennie with FCG.He somehow managed to get to the finals, beating unpowered fish in the semis. After some talking, we agree to a prize-split and I get the Twister and reported win while paying him some money. I didn’t feel like playing anymore, even though I should be able to win this matchup. Timetwister either goes in my T4 stack, or if someone wants it I can let it go, we'll see what happens.
Afterwards, we go to Marco’s place and have dinner, open some Fifth Dawn boosters, which I traded vs Revised ones with him because he still needs a lot of cards of the set, watch some tv and play some Type 4 with his horrible, all uncommon stack, which somehow is still a lot of fun.
Obligatory props, slopsProps:
- The deck, for performing exceptionally well, way better then I had thought
- Marco, for letting me borrow his Shops
- The Mol tournament crew: a well run event.
Slops:
- The judge. You’re really a good guy, and I don’t intend to talk you down, but your ruling in the Marco-Ken(Gifts, which I beat in the semis) was all wrong.
Ken drained something before declaring attackers, passes the turn and thus should mana burn from his Drain. Even the judge-list discussion agreed on that, it’s an implicit trigger. Further more, seeing this was a REL2 event, you’re supposed to know the turn structure. Ken obviously didn’t and screwed up, and then you awarded him a
free game win basically, by letting him use the mana from the Drain, even though he had passed the turn. This gave him a Time Walk, because he got a ‘free’ Gifts for it. You even said to us you’d followed the discussion on the judge list and then
STILL made this decision.
